The Apartment Group’s founder and president, Jeff Price, will join JLL as a managing director and lead the team, as well as the firm’s overall multi-family platform in Texas.

“Jeff Price’s The Apartment Group is the right partner as it has some of Dallas’ deepest multi-family experience and on-the-ground market intelligence that melds well with our national and global expertise,” Jubeen Vaghefi, JLL’s international director and leader of the firm’s multi-family investment sales business, told Commercial Property Executive. “Additionally, we admire the firm for its professionalism, integrity, ethics and entrepreneurial spirit and felt that those traits match the way we do business. The cultural fit between the two firms was significant in our decision. They bring a deep level of expertise and are highly regarded in the local community.”

The purchase is part of the company’s ongoing effort to strategically expand the firm’s overall Capital Markets platform.

“Strategic acquisitions are a part of our ongoing strategy to better serve our clients. This, coupled with increasing client demand for leading multi-family services, the growth projections for the Texas marketplace and the fact that we found a partner that fits our cultural values, made this the ideal time to complete an acquisition,” Vaghefi said. “Over the past several years, we’ve added market-leading multi-family teams in Florida, Washington, D.C., New York and New Jersey, Boston, Atlanta, Houston, Phoenix, Seattle, and Southern California—once we find the right fit in San Francisco and Chicago, we’ll be able to offer clients the most comprehensive platform in the United States.”

The acquisition allows JLL to nimbly respond to increased client demand in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area caused by rising employment, tightening occupancies and a near tripling in the apartment construction pipeline.

“In Texas, Jones Lang LaSalle has always had strong investment sale and debt and equity services, a robust tenant representation practice as well as deep landlord leasing and project management capabilities,” Vaghefi said. “We’re also looking into bringing on teams on Chicago and San Francisco.”

Over the past four years, JLL has added more than 75 multi-family sales and debt and equity specialists to its roster, and late last year, were approved as a Freddie Mac Multi-family Program Plus Seller/Servicer in the state of Texas.